Every Call Of Duty Game Ranked From Worst To Best

Nobody does warfare like Call of Duty, as evidenced by the series' staggering sales figures and universal critical acclaim. Over the years, we've seen the long-running series run the gauntlet from World War II to battling for the solar system, with virtually everything in between. However, as diehard fans will tell you, not all CoDs are created equal, and some are simply better than others. So which is the cream of the crop, and which aren't exactly the straightest of shooters? Let's wade through the trenches—both modern and futuristic—to find out.

(Note that this ranking only includes the series' console and PC entries. Handheld titles like Call of Duty: Roads to Victory and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified are not considered.)

As the franchise's console debut, Call of Duty: Finest Hour is far from what its name implies.

Instead of focusing on one character, Spark Unlimited's entry into the series has players bouncing between three forgettable soldiers from three different WWII armies (Russian, British and American) in a bland, simplified version of what PC gamers had running on their machines. A distinct lack of checkpoints often put a damper on the fun, especially when dealing with some absurdly long escort missions. In every way, shape, and form, Finest Hour would've been finer had it followed in its big brother's—the original Call of Duty's—footsteps.

It wasn't a total failure, of course, as the first CoD on consoles put us in control of some tanks, and plopped us in a particularly interesting North African campaign. However, with no shortage of first-person shooters available on the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox, Finest Hour is—truth be told—barely worth mentioning.

Going down as perhaps the most hated entry to date, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was maligned as soon as it was revealed—perhaps unfairly so.

2016 was an absolutely epic year for shooters, as it saw the releases of Doom, Titanfall 2, Gears of War 4, Battlefield 1, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Amidst such a sea of quality competitors, Infinite Warfare failed to stand out from the crowd—and ultimately loosened the franchise's vice grip on the genre. A blockbuster campaign of solar proportions fell victim to some pacing issues, and even Game of Thrones' Kit Harington failed to make a lasting impression. Worse yet, the multiplayer might have even been a downgrade from the previous year's Call of Duty: Black Ops III, though throwing zombies in space was just outrageous enough to work.

Many fans of the series stomached Call of Duty's futuristic push with the phrase: "As long as they don't make Space CoD..." Well, Infinity Ward did make Space CoD—and it didn't go well.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III falls victim to the same thing that dogs most "subpar" (but still great) entries in this list—a lack of ingenuity.

Online, things were quite promising. The implementation of a Specialists system changed online multiplayer for the better, allowing players the ability to explore a wide range of characters with unique advantages and disadvantages. However, the fun stopped there, as everything else about Black Ops III's multiplayer felt familiar—which isn't necessarily a bad thing, since (arguably) nobody does competitive online first-person-shooters like the Call of Duty franchise.

Black Ops III's new film-noir take on their now-patented zombie mode was as fresh and unique as it was challenging, and Treyarch's new Nightmare mode put their cookie-cutter campaign to shame. In fact, the single-player campaign is one of the worst they've ever made, forcing you to slog through level after level of whack-a-mole shooting galleries and on-rail action sequences—ultimately weighing this game down to the realm of mediocrity. (Only in comparison to other CoDs, of course.)

Call of Duty's first proper entry on current-gen consoles was a treat, indeed—but still had a few chinks in its exo-suit.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare featured an excellent campaign, packed with near-futuristic weaponry and powerful exo-suits, and featuring House of Cards' Kevin Spacey as the primary antagonist, with voice acting titan Troy Baker as the primary protagonist. The introductory missions were among the best in the series' history, with a modernized South Korea providing a beautiful backdrop to shoot down clouds of drones. However, the story itself ultimately fell flat and definitely didn't warrant a second playthrough.

Advanced Warfare's multiplayer was also quite excellent, providing ample opportunity to test out the game's fancy new hardware and move sets. Lacking in content it was not, with Call of Duty: Black Ops' Hardpoint making a triumphant return, and Uplink serving as another form of capture the flag for those not interested in literally capturing a flag. Co-op survival was also good fun, assuming you had a friend to help you flip the map.

Treyarch took their sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops where no entry in the franchise had gone before — into the future! This allowed the title to experiment with weaponry and gadgets in a way that no previous Call of Duty had been able to do, while at the same time empowering the developers to tell a story without the constraints of contemporary plausibility.

That said, nothing about the gameplay was particularly advanced compared to earlier entries in the series. Despite the new setting, the campaign is as typical as ever, with a heavy dose of the nonsensical, as you travel around the world shooting swarms of both bad guys and bad robots in what amounts to, at times, a glitchy, buggy mess. Still, Black Ops II does deserve credit for pioneering player choice in the series, while featuring branching storylines and multiple endings.

The multiplayer, meanwhile, refined everything Call of Duty had done up to that time in its most complete package yet. Changing killstreaks to scorestreaks rewarded team-oriented play, a solid starting kit kept newbies from feeling overwhelmed, and the majority of the maps were brilliantly designed — which all helped justify the game's record-setting success on the market. Black Ops II was Call of Duty at the absolute peak of its prestige and cultural relevance.  

Coming in as the worst of the franchise's exceptional Modern Warfare series is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3...which is still miles better than even the best Black Ops title.

Modern Warfare 3's single-player is its biggest triumph as well as its greatest flaw. For the first time, Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer got the scripting right, correctly balancing the story—which underlies actually getting from point A to point B—with non-stop, shoot-'em-all action. Each mission, when taken alone, is exciting and interesting. However, when taken together, Modern Warfare 3's campaign has the least amount of variety, making it feel like a mindless slog through an on-rails shooting gallery without any unique gameplay elements in place to change up the pace.

By this point, however, Call of Duty's online component had become its claim to fame, and Modern Warfare 3 delivered in a big way. You'd be hard-pressed to find a single level which isn't objectively brilliant, and balancing tweaks made the game more legitimately fair than ever. The game's progression system is near-perfect, meaning the only thing stopping you from playing more of MW3's online multiplayer is...well...you.

It's been nearly a decade since the Call of Duty series last returned to its roots, and 2017's Call of Duty: WWII does so in spectacular fashion—offering great renditions of the series' flagship campaign, multiplayer, and zombies modes.

The campaign is heart-poundingly intense and feels more grounded than many of its competitors—expect to die multiple times while storming the beach at Normandy. Lending further realism to the campaign is the removal of regenerating health, forcing you to use medpacks in order to heal your battle wounds in addition to a relying heavily on squadmates for assistance.

Those unhappy with the increasingly fast-paced, arena shooter-like multiplayer mechanics of recent Call of Duty entries will love WWII, which slows things down in a major way. No more wall-jumping. No more futuristic weapons. All that's left is a classic, grounded multiplayer shooter with extremely well-designed maps—with the welcome additions of an objective-based War mode and Destiny-like pre-match social hub.

Rounding out the superb package is a revamped Nazi zombies mode, which favors the original's horror over recent renditions' campiness. The Nazi experiments are more grotesque than ever, and with multiple ways to progress through the campaign, there's something for zombie fans everywhere.

When all three modes are combined, Call of Duty: WWII is one exceptional package.

By now, you've undoubtedly figured out which Call of Duty holds down the top spot as the greatest entry in the series to date. But nonetheless, with such massive shoes to fill, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 managed to meet—if not exceed—everyone's expectations.

Modern Warfare 2's campaign maintained the excellent standard of quality fans had come to expect from the series with action-packed set pieces and enough drama to keep you on your toes—including a controversial terrorist attack on an airport, in which you and your crew lay waste to hundreds of innocent civilians. However, the campaign was just a bit too short, and the story itself wasn't nearly as cohesive as its predecessor.

Where Modern Warfare 2 manages to actually surpass its older brother is in its online multiplayer. Revamping the loadout system allowed for more customizable gun combinations, while the restructured perk system allowed for them to be upgraded through use, granting secondary abilities. Of course, customizable kill streak rewards permanently changed the game for the better, helping make Modern Warfare 2's online multiplayer not only the best in the series, but one of the best competitive multiplayer experiences ever made.